Sunderland keeper Steele gets Camp support after red card

Lee Camp has backed Jason Steele to bounce back after his red-card howler at QPR.

Sunderland keeper Steele was given his marching orders four minutes into the second half on Saturday after he dashed outside of his penalty area to meet Darnell Furlong’s punt forward, misjudged the bounce of the ball and then used his hand to direct it away from QPR forward Paul Smyth.

Steele is set to serve a one-game ban for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity, with Sunderland set to receive confirmation from the FA today.

He will miss this weekend’s home Sky Bet Championship clash with Preston North End.

QPR capitalised on their man advantage and took the lead just after the hour mark through Ebere Eze and were worthy 1-0 winners.

Camp – set to return to the starting line-up against Preston – had sympathy for Steele, who had recently been recalled after being dropped.

On the dismissal, Camp said: “I’ll be honest, I didn’t see it because I was sat in the dugout and, with the gaffer and Kit [Symons] standing up, you can’t really see a lot from the dugout.

“I just heard ‘handball’ – at first, I didn’t realise Steeley had handballed it. I can’t really comment on it.

“I feel for him – it is horrible and we have all been in that situation.

“He has come back into the team and done really well.

“Unfortunately, this is the life of a goalkeeper.

“We have all been there, but he is a strong character and a great lad and, as always, he will bounce back.